Kukla's Korner Hockey

Entries with the tag: roman polak

The Toronto Sun's Steve Simmons discusses the inevitable "falls" of Dion Phaneuf and Phil Kessel as the main topic in his Sunday notebook, but you and I both know that numbers 3 and 81 will be exiting Toronto in salary-and-or-player-dumps soon, and we all know that Jaromir Jagr's ability tos core in the "Dead Puck" era was (and now is again) pretty damn impressive, so this set of observations strikes me as the most pertinent "chunk" of Simmons' notebook:

Before trading David Clarkson to Columbus, the Leafs thought they had a deal going that would have sent him back to New Jersey. The player whose contract would have swapped in exchange has not been confirmed, but quite likely it’s the concussed Ryan Clowe ... There was significant interest in Roman Polak at the NHL deadline, including from his former team, the St. Louis Blues. The Leafs like what Polak gives them from a stability and maturity point of view, something the current team is lacking in ... Pretty sure Ron Wilson was an advocate of Phaneuf being named captain of the Leafs. Wasn’t he the coach at the time? ... The narrative once was that the Leafs won the trade that brought Joffrey Lupul and Jake Gardiner to Toronto in exchange for Francois Beachemin. The standings don’t agree. Since then, the Leafs are playing .497 hockey and the Ducks are accumulating points at a .638 clip ... If you don’t love the Andrew Hammond, Hamburglar, story, you don’t love sports. I’m doing something I don’t remember doing before: I quietly cheering for the Ottawa Senators.

A guy who isn’t being talked about much who may be attracting a lot of interest is New Jersey defenceman Marek Zidlicky. Nobody is sure if Devils GM Lou Lamoriello would actually deal Zidlicky, but teams have been calling to see what the asking price is, just in case he does decide to make a move.

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The Maple Leafs want to be the busiest team in the league Monday. They have been trying to deal almost their entire roster, but all eyes will be on captain Dion Phaneuf and wingers Phil Kessel and Joffrey Lupul. They’ve also, for the past two weeks, been shopping centre Tyler Bozak and his $4.2-million salary. Toronto has a chance to make this a significant day if they make moves.

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The Montreal Canadiens set up shop in San Jose on Sunday night after a long flight that left at 11 a.m. The Habs have been steadfast in their search for a defenceman since the quest for help began. They were able to help their forward ranks by picking up Devante Smith-Pelley from the Ducks earlier this week in exchange for Jiri Sekac, but the thinking is GM Marc Bergevin isn’t done. The Habs would like to get a defenceman and the belief is they’ve been eyeing Toronto’s Roman Polak and Edmonton’s Jeff Petry. Though teams have wanted draft picks in return, the talk is the Habs may be dangling goaltender prospect Zach Fucale, who was a second-round selection (No. 36 overall) in 2013.

Garrioch continues, reporting that the Sabres and Bruins may swing a Chris Stewart deal, that the Blues want to make some sort of impact and that Matt Beleskey is in high demand.

ST. LOUIS – St. Louis Blues Executive Vice President and General Manager Doug Armstrong announced today the club has re-signed defenseman Roman Polak to a five-year contract extension.

“We believe Roman is one of the top defensive defensemen in the league who plays against the opposing team’s best players night after night,” said Armstrong. “He’s one of our top penalty killers who is just reaching the prime of his career and we’re happy to have him in the fold for the next five years.”

Polak, 25, played in 55 games this past season, recording 12 points (three goals, nine assists) and 33 penalty minutes. The 6’1”, 227-pound defenseman has played in 227 career National Hockey League (NHL) games, all with the Blues, posting 49 points (eight goals, 41 assists) along with 143 penalty minutes.